My Boats

She’s the perfect blue water cruising boat. She’s more than capable of crossing oceans, very comfy inside AND she’s beautiful! We lovingly nickname her ‘Noccy’.

It was the legend Bob Perry who designed the Tayana 37s back in 1975. Nocturne was built in 1979. So she’s quite a lot older than me and she’s even older than my mum… she’s not older than dad though… he’s old!

Nocturne is a full keeled double ender which means she’s very sturdy and comfortable to sail in, in any weather. The cockpit is small and secure with high coamings which offer protection from high seas, but I’m either below deck or in my travel case which is strapped in if we are underway!

The interior below deck is, in my whiskery opinion, stunning. There are no two Tayanas the same as they were all semi-custom built. Obviously Nocturne is the best! My humans love the comfy V-berth and I love the top of the wardrobe. The saloon has lots of storage space and we have a full ships library that now includes my very own book! The table also drops down to make a double berth as well as the sofa on the opposite side so we can happily welcome guests on board.

Nocturne was based in Seattle for most of her life and her previous owners have done lots of exciting trips in her including across the pacific. We have the logs of where she’s been and what they did and it makes really interesting reading. My favourite is the Alaska log as it seems so cool and different to our experiences in sunny Italy.

Our main dinghy and family car is a Caribe MVP-10 (10 foot) with a Suzuki 15HP 4 stroke outboard. Her name is ‘Nippy’ because she can go really fast! She’s a fantastic boat in her own right giving us the possibility to go ashore quickly and efficiently whenever we want. It’s so powerful that if we ever need to, we could use it to tow Nocturne or help out other boats in distress. It’s pawesomeness is only let down by it’s size and difficulty getting it on and off deck (particularly the 45kg outboard).

My purrsonal sailing dinghy and a wonderful addition to our feline fleet is a Walker Bay 8. We’ve named her ‘Nauti’ because without the wind she misbehaves! She’s purrfect for hours of fun sailing around and she easily converts into a cute little rowing dinghy when I feel the humans need more exercise!

We also have ‘Nada’ a Sevylor Adventure Plus kayak, it doesn’t move unless the humans paddle! I prefer it to be on the deck though because it provides the purrfect shady spot! If it’s deflated it’s easily stored in the lazerette.

Now that we’ve had to temporarily move off Nocturne, we have added a Cranchi Cruiser 32 to our growing fleet. Her name is Walrus (her previous owners liked the Beetles song) and she’s purrfect for the lake… we are currently based by Lago Maggiore in Italy. The dogs absolutely love her because it’s easy for them to leap in and out of the water, but I still prefer my true love Noccy!

We love Nocturne (and the mini-fleet!), sailing, the ocean and life afloat!

Great looking vessel! When you taking off to go full time cruising? We’re three years away…counting down and getting more and more excited about it every day! Looking forward to following your blog. You can see ours at http://www.siochana.us.

Hi, Bailey,
So glad you liked “We Ain’t Yachting Yet” on papermudandme.wordpress. I know the kind of life you lead because back in 1972 we launched the “Waiola,”a 42 foot cutter that my wife and I along with our son built. We lived on it for 8 years sailing between Hawaii and French Polynesia. – Aloha – pjs.

Hi Bailey!
The team at Boatbound loves your blog! You have a lot of really great images and we would really like to promote it on our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Boatbound
Let me know if this would be ok and feel free to check out our website Boatbound.co
We’re the nations first fully insured ‘pier to pier’ boat rental marketplace. We help owners offset the cost of boat ownership by renting their boat out to pre-screened qualified renters looking to create new on-the-water experiences. I look forward to hearing back!

Hi Sam! Thank you very much! Of course it would be pawesome! As long as you link back to me I’d be very happy! Your company seems like a great idea. I’ve not seen anything like it here in Europe. If you’d like to chat more my email is baileyboatcat@icloud.com. Bisous Bailey

Hi Dave! Nocturne was built in 1979 and based in Seattle most of her life. She did the Pacific circuit and then made her way to Europe where we bought her in Italy. Which hull number do you have? Ours is 156. We have a lot of the old TOG newsletters maybe there’s some info in their on your boat too.

Ahoy Bailey! That’s just the most fantastic adventure, I’d be keen see Italy this way too. I came by way of Hands On Bowie. My lovely friends from Belgium. Congratulations, I saw you have a book now. Very impressive. So I’ll just float around here a bit then. Bon Voyage!